“That is so, certainly,” he replied. “I invited him to join us on—let me see—the 8th of October. He came to see me and talk things over at my office about three days later. He seemed satisfied by what I was able to tell him but asked for some reports and schedules and said he would let me have his decision in a week or two. I was expecting every day to hear from him, when he suddenly died—a tragic business, what? A great loss to the country and to us.” Sir Hunter shook his head gloomily.
“Would you mind telling me why you wanted him to join your Board?”
“I should have thought that was obvious enough. Big man in the City, carry great weight, give great confidence to investors, what?”
“Then why did your fellow-directors not welcome his appearance?”
Sir Hunter stared.
“How the devil . . . ? What makes you think they didn’t?”
“It is the case that they did not, then?”
The Chairman shifted uneasily in his chair.
“Now you mention it,” he said at last, “one of the Board wasn’t particularly keen on it—thought Sir Garth might want to run the show—jealousy really, I put it at.”
“And that was?”